Edit: I'm editing this because for some reason the punctuation marks got all messed up.
I'm not entirely sure which word to use to describe this manga. It has its inexcusable flaws, no doubt, and yet I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting - don't be fooled by the high rating, however: that's mostly because of the art style.
Overall I liked the main plot a lot, with the Satanic association, Michael's endeavours to find the true culprit of his parents' death and the character of Lucifer himself who was, for the most part, intriguing. It was an unusual read for me, who's mostly dedicated to Slice of Life and really dramatic plots full of feelings and angst and fruity stuff like that. Fufufu.
Nonetheless, and this is one big catch, 2 volumes is hardly enough to develop such a promising premise and I feel as though the author put too much effort creating the Idea and then failed to deliver it. There were too many sub-plots you could go to in this: that of Gabby's, the twin brother (I'll get to him later), the paedophile's, Abel's (the most interesting side-character, in my humble opinion) and of course, our favourite, the homosexual relationship between,
a pupil and a priest. Neil was, doubtlessly, my favourite character but he was still a priest. Yet you could hardly feel the uneasiness in the way he looked at Michael, even though the sexual tension between them was painfully obvious. Their last scene in the library was probably the only time you felt this idea of guilty-pleasure coming to the surface
This last issue I've pointed - particularly - should have been given more space to flourish. Because everything was pretty much cramped in two terribly short volumes, when everything is said and done and we are left with Michael and Neil--- that's when your heart genuinely starts to throb, that's when you desperately fear for the story to end. You want to see more of that, regardless everything else you've been put through up to this point. Because there's nothing left however - or too little of it, anyhow - it ends with a bittersweet taste, feeling incomplete, abrupt.
Finally though, two pages away from the grand finale, we have the big question, which kind of lingered there since the start of volume 2, in potential only.
"Father, why is to love someone of the same gender a sin?"
And the whole matter is brushed off in a couple of panels. I felt almost betrayed, not so much because of Michael but for Neil's sake. He deserved more attention than that.
I do agree that this could use some work around the edges, some more depth, particularly in what concerns Neil's feelings for Michael and vice-versa. And going back to all the sub-plots I mentioned, it's a pity so many characters got so little attention. However, because this is a BL game (which I didn't know at the time of my first reading), we understand some things ought to remain obscure. Perhaps I'm being a little biased here because I really liked the manga (and mostly because of Neil) but I don't want this to sound as an excuse. I do acknowledge that most of these subplots could have been avoided, perfectly, if there was no intention on the author's part to develop them further from the start. For instance,
why bother with the Student Council President's mysterious presentation if he's an absolutely useless character in the end? Why bother with the paedophile's attempt to rape Michael if, in the end of the day, you'll dispose of him as nonchalantly and even as comically as though he was being accused of stealing silver-wear? After the first spanking it was already clear this priest was not the good guy, but you could have left it hinted, implied, dark and twisted. It would have worked better. And why bother with Gabby's existence if he barely ever speaks a word?
Well, as for Gabby I think the only excuse is:
in the game, he's but a product of Michael's imagination. And by giving him an half-ass presence in the manga, the author retains some of that ambiguity....
It still ruined the mood, if you ask me. I'd rather he didn't existed at all in the first place.
The ending was... funny. I guess I'm a hypocrite for admitting it but, really, the ending was so sweet and charming it kind of makes it up for the rest. Kind of.
I'll still give it a 9. Hell yeah. The art alone is more than deserving of it. But... well, I rest my case.
(-23)
